Wow -- I was glued to every word. This review completely "gets it" and gives all of the information a Lunar fan could want to know. I'll be passing on this game... at least for a while. I really do want to see the new art. Argh! But after reading this, the thought of a Lunar 3 frightens me.

What a review. Probably the best remake review I've ever read that actually takes a remake perspective. I personally feel they should stop remaking Lunar, in the sense that they shouldn't touch an old classic. And yet, it was Silver Star Story Complete I played, which, as I've been told, was itself altered significantly from the original.

I'm just glad Eternal Blue only had one (videogame) remake.

Not sure how to make a sig? While logged into your account, you can edit it and your other public and private information from the Settings page.

Thanks to dodgy localisation issues, I'ver never had the chance to play any of this particulat Lunar (I imported the PSX version -- twice -- but my deregionaliser seemed to annoyingly stumble over it) and I was hoping the PSP version would be faithful enough to finally be able to put that one regret to bed. Now I have an excellent idea on what to expect -- thanks for that. Great review.

Thank you all very much for the kind words. I don't want to seem like an inflexible old-school fan; it's just that a) the new team doesn't seem capable of standing on their own two feet enough to steward a rebirth of the franchise, and b) though there's good even in that prologue I find so problematic, the bad is pretty dire. What they need to do, really, is to replace the writers. (They won't - Harmony is timed correctly and strong enough otherwise to be a success, which the writing team will take as validation and thus continue on their merry way.) Perhaps Xseed has done a terrific localization job that negates a few of the issues, who knows, but there are some bad decisions here that can't be translated away.

Not sure how to make a sig? While logged into your account, you can edit it and your other public and private information from the Settings page.

I youtubed the prologue to see it for myself and I actually found it difficult to bear. I played Silver Star Story Complete and I love it so much the way it is that I never cared to play or even learn about any of the other versions, including the original. Does anyone know how Lunar Legend stacks up? Honestly I'm not even sure I want to see a real sequel, even if it was by the original team, out of the fear that it wouldn't live up to my expectations.

Emp, I personally recommend making Complete the version you play, though I think Zig thinks the original is the one to play.

EDIT: I also just wanted to add that I really liked some of the language you used in this review, like "residue of everyday life," "sour glean," "never eventuated," "bigger ideas and values than the normal RPG fodder," "precious affectation," and the first sentence of the second paragraph. There was a degree of sophistication here that actually enhanced clarity and even conveyed ideas that I wouldn't expect from most reviews, and it seemed natural and effortless.

I would like to give you suggestions for improvement but it takes a little more time to analyze a piece of good writing critically than to praise it. For now, I will say that the review does seem a little on the longish side, and I wonder if everything in there was truly necessary. Particularly, the entire paragraph that's a parenthetical looks like it may not be necessary, and the fact that it's a parenthetical seems to confirm this. It's good for the Lunar fan craving as much information as possible, and so far you've mostly gotten comments from Lunar fans very interested in the subject. The review obviously emphasizes comprehensiveness over singularity of focus, but I thought that part may be going a little overboard on information.

Not sure how to make a sig? While logged into your account, you can edit it and your other public and private information from the Settings page.

Yeah, I liked Ghaleon facepalming over Dain and Mel bonding over stupid jokes (caveat: this goodwill may not extend to Xseed's stupid jokes, which I haven't seen), and I liked the part with Althena singing in the midst of battle, since I'm a big sap, apparently. The rest can take a leap.

I understand what you're saying about the parenthetical paragraph; I myself debated whether to leave it in. I thought I'd be remiss not to mention the "new" gameplay element, though perhaps I didn't need a paragraph to do so. Maybe I just found the nerfing of the hero's Mary Sue spells too hilarious.

Not sure how to make a sig? While logged into your account, you can edit it and your other public and private information from the Settings page.

As a non-Lunar player I think this is an interesting review if a bit on the long side. I'm always conflicted about pointing out technical stuff but when a review spans 15k it's that much more important it nail things down.

Stuff like "in brief" containing 5 points left me realizing I'd need a break in this review. That's not bad on its own, but combined with other stuff, I tended to get bogged down. A paragraph of parentheses is a sign you may just want to drop something to say, and it bugged me a bit.

I'd be more interested in a paragraph that hit me with "The original creative team left, but unfortunately the script was recycled..." or something that hit the main points. The comparison to Casablanca is clever, but it takes a long time to get going, and whittling that down will help people keep their attention spans.

And the stuff you want to emphasize you like--well, emphasis belongs at the top, or not where it tidies up your complaints. And the graphics describing people in the plot, I think, belongs after the story description. For me, it swerved too much.

From other people's comments, it appears if you know the Lunar series, as many people do, then this hits the spot. Unfortunately, from my perspective, I think I am missing a lot, and hopefully my questions will help you if you want to take another hack at the review. It has points of humor with Athena's encephalitis and so forth. That sort of thing is tough to pull out.

My principal said, 'Emo, Emo, Emo.'
I said 'I'm the one in the middle, you lousy drunk!'
-- Emo Phillips